Bayformers to continue…

Following the wildly financially successful release of ‘Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’ during 2011, speculation has never ended about the future of the Transformers film franchise. Would a new instalment happen? Would it involve Michael Bay? Will the cast return? There was speculation of Jason Statham coming onboard for a new Transformers project as it seemed increasingly unlikely that Shia would return.

Given the profile and the popularity of the film series its always seemed unlikely that Paramount would let it slide back into obscurity and producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura has recently been quoted not only confirming continuation of the franchise, but claiming that the director of the first three films, Michael Bay himself, will (like Optimus Prime) return.

The exact quote from the producer is below;

Michael’s going to direct it, and it’ll be in the summer of 2014. We’ll be releasing it then… I think the challenge there is we really are going to do a reboot there, and what that’s going to be we don’t even know yet.

On the topic of returning cast members DiBonaventura had the following to say;

No, it’s so silly. We gotta get a story first. You can’t pick characters until you have a story. It’s a funny thing, it’s not… what I perceive Spider-Man to be is just a redoing of the whole thing. It’s not that. It’s an evolution, there’s still continuity that’s going on. There’ll be a lot of new cast, whether there’s anyone from the first we don’t even know yet. The truth is, there’s going to be a whole new story. The characters that will come along will be Optimus and Bumblebee, I’m sure.

As if right on cue we’ve also seem an update from the director himself via his own website with the following;

There has been a lot of speculation about what I’m going to do next and when or if I will do another Transformers. So let me set the record straight. I have just concluded a deal with Paramount to do two movies, but it won’t be two Transformers. I will first do ‘Pain & Gain’ with Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Then I will do the next Transformers for release on June 29, 2014.

So this all raises many more questions than it answers, talk of a reboot but potentially with the continuation of some existing characters? Could it be something along the lines of ‘X-Men: First Class’? Will the artistic style of the Transformers themselves continue in the next film?

As mentioned above the release date has been set for June 29, 2014, so presumably production will be forced to fit around that schedule, the question is do we really need another Transformers film from Michael Bay? Is there something he’s left unsaid after the previous three films or something new that he can bring to it? Looking at the themes and the consistent attributes of the first three films in the franchise, it seems doubtful.

There is no debating the financial success of this franchise to date, however from a critical standpoint these films have been widely detested, particularly the second instalment. For those hoping for something different in the future of Transformers films, it seems change could be a number of years away and for this casual Transformers fan it looks likely that the 1986 animated film starring Orson Welles will remain at the top of the Transformers film list for a good while longer.

Leith spent most of his formative years growing up on the coastal fringes of Western Australia without a cinema in sight. There he grew up on the wonders of home rentals before relocating to Perth and gaining access to a proper cinematic experience just in time for the Star Wars Special Edition re-releases. From there Leith's love of movies expanded to volunteering on a Star Wars fan film, reviewing films, writing about film news, and attending film and pop-culture related conventions on the other side of the world. Leith's favourite films are too many to mention but all start with the Star Wars saga, Back to the Future, the Dark Knight trilogy, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings and all things Kevin Smith.
With an insatiable appetite for all things pop-culture related Leith also has an unhealthy addiction to the world of comics and can often be found buried under a pile of unread back issues madly trying to catch up on a number of titles coming out from mostly DC and Darkhorse.